Agape For All Nations Ministries

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Agape For All Nations Ministries International (AFANMI) is a church founded in 2007 by Pastor Walter Masocha in the UK. The church now has branches in England, Ireland, Northen Island, Scotland, Wales, Malawi, Nigeria, and USA. In 2014 the church was involved in a sex scandal after its founder was arrested on charges of abusing 2 female congregants, Jean Gasho, and a 15-year-old girl. Masocha was convicted by a court of law but his conviction was later quashed by a higher court. The church eventually suspended Masocha in December 2018 following another scandal of alleged incest and affairs with several married women in the church.

Contents

Church Leadership Structure

Following the suspension of its founder, Masocha, the church is led by Francis Aturia.

AFANMI Leadership Structure

Sex Scandals

In 2014, the church's founder was arrested on charges of sexual misconduct against one Jean Gasho, and a then 15-year-old girl. According to testimonies in court, Masocha had groped Gasho on more than one occasion. He was also accused of making underage teenage girls massage his naked body at a hotel in Scotland in 2012 and 2013. Masocha appeared at a sheriff Court in Scotland on five charges. He pleaded not guilty to alleged incidents, on various occasions between May 17, 2013 and July 31, 2013, at Crieff Hydro Hotel and another location, engaging in sexual activity with a 14 year-old girl by inducing her to massage him using oils.

At the time, mention of Masocha was taken off the church's website and he was reported to have taken "leave of absence"[1]

Masocha was found guilty by a jury of 7 men and 7 women in April 2015. He was sentenced in May 2015 to 250 hours community service. Many people voiced their concerns against claiming the sentence did not do justice to the gravity of the offenses committed by Masocha.

Masocha appealed the conviction and in February 2016, Scotland's senior judge quashed the convictions saying there had misdirection at his trial on a point over prior inconsistent statements.[2]

Masocha returned to his position of leadership at the church.

Masocha's Suspension from church in December 2018

On 25 December 2018, Jean Gasho, the woman who had reported Masocha for sexual misconduct in 2014, reported on her blog that Masocha had been suspended from his church following a confession he made that he had sexual relations with his own married daughter.[3]

On 27 December, Agape For All Nations Ministries released a statement on their website saying that they had suspended Walter Masocha as leader of the church because "Dr Walter Masocha, with his own volition admitted that in his private life, he had a moral fall",[4]:

To Whom It May Concern:
Following recent development in which the Visionary, Dr Walter Masocha, with his own volition admitted that in his private life, he had a moral fall; he has been suspended with immediate effect as leader of the church Agape For All Nations Ministries International (AFANMI/Agape). The Vision of AFANMI whose goal is to find the lost and equip the found, continues under the leadership of the Commissioners.

A full investigation will be conducted and appropriate action taken for the reputational damage to his wife Dr Judith and the wider community of believers especially in Agape. In the current state of affairs, we have a duty of care to offer spiritual, moral and emotional support to the wider member of the church who are affected, Dr Judith & family and also to Dr Walter Masocha.

Gasho also later wrote that Masocha was forced to resign and that he had done so stating that he had suffered a ‘moral fall’ of sleeping with countless married women and his own daughter.

...on 24 December on a quiet evening in Stirling, Scotland, as the Masocha family was getting ready for a jolly Agape Christmas, the wife of the prophet Judith Masocha found herself holding her husband’s phone after an alleged tip-off from her son-in-law that the Bishop had been allegedly having sex with his own married daughter.

...Judith had found a lot more on her husband’s phone, naked pictures of several married women in the church, as well as explicit messages the Bishop sent to his lovers/concubines.

Upon the shocking discoveries, Judith called Walter Masocha’s family, both in Zimbabwe and in the UK.

Shadreck who is a member of Agape church, took it into his own hands to ‘deal’ with Masocha....

Shadreck is reported to have said to his Uncle, “You are a disgrace to our family! We had to put up with you dragging the family name down with Jean’s case, now this again! Step down now!” Shadreck demanded, in front of the whole family.

Lost for words and humiliated, it is reported that after confessing to his grave sins which included incest, Walter Masocha was FORCED to write a resignation letter to the elders of his own Church, stating that he had suffered a ‘moral fall’ of sleeping with countless married women and his own daughter.
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